__________________It breaks your heart. It is designed to break your heart. The game begins in the spring, when everything else begins again, and it blossoms in the summer, filling the afternoons and evenings, and then as soon as the chill rains come, it stops and leaves you to face the fall alone. - A. Bartlett Giamatti

The bullpen threw strikes today, more or less. Jones walked Chisenhall in the seventh, but got the three sixth inning hitters he faced, when the Indians were coming back; He didn't put his seventh inning walk into scoring position with a bad pickoff attempt, either. A bullpen not wanlking hitters and not making mistakes would have won at least two more games on this homestand.

Jones came in and limited the damage even when a hit could have tied the game. Maybe without the Rios homer, the pressure of the go-head run at third with none out would have changed Jones' approach. Or maybe Ventura wouldn't have sent Quintana out in the sixth with a 1-0 lead with the hitters who loaded the bases with one out due up in hte sixth.

The bottom line is that the bullpen didn't break today and the Sox won. Reed continues to do his job as closer.

The Sox should have scored more runs, of course, although the failure isn't as flagrant as the Indians failing to score with the bases loaded and one out. Two on and one out in the third and two on and none out in the eighth went nowwhere. In the third, the hitters who failed were the hitters who drove in the only Sox runs today. In the eighth, I was surpised Gillaspie didn't bunt the runners over after the Indians brouht the lefty in to face him. Getting that runner over to third with one out in bottom of the eighth would be huge. Gillaspie had some success sacrificing in Fresno. Fortunately Reed made the at bat an obscure footnote in a Sox win.